Wicked Little Letters

I have been looking forward to seeing Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley together in Wicked Little Letters ever since I saw the trailer and I finally had the chance last night at the Broadway.  I loved this charming British period piece and I laughed out loud more times than I can count (as did the entire audience).  Edith Swan (Colman), a devout spinster who lives with her controlling and misogynistic father Edward (Timothy Spall) and her sympathetic mother Victoria (Gemma Jones) in Littlehampton, England during the 1920s, has been receiving anonymous letters that are deeply disturbing to her because they contain vulgar insults and profanity.  She suspects that her neighbor Rose Gooding (Buckley), a wild and foul-mouthed single mother from Ireland, is responsible for these letters and has the dim-witted Constable Papperwick (Hugh Skinner) arrest her.  Rose denies writing them and a female police officer named Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) believes her because there is no credible evidence against her.  However, Chief Constable Spedding (Paul Chahidi), who is under pressure from Parliament to solve the case, dismisses her concerns so she enlists several eccentric women from the village (Joanna Scanlan, Lolly Adefope, and Eileen Atkins) to help her find the proof to clear Rose.  Colman is absolutely hilarious as a seemingly pious woman who is secretly delighted by all of the attention she is receiving from this scandal and I wanted to cheer when she finally confronts her father.  Buckley is always a lot of fun when she plays a brash young woman but she is very affecting as a mother who wants a better life for her daughter.  I also really enjoyed Vasan's performance as a woman undaunted by discrimination she faces in the police department and the rest of the cast is delightful.  I figured out the mystery, based on a true story, early on but it didn't matter because the characters are all so engaging.  This is a crowd-pleaser that I recommend to fans of British comedies with the proviso that it obviously includes a lot of profanity (albeit with very charming accents).

Jazz vs. Nuggets

Last night I went to my final Utah Jazz game of the season with my friend Angela and it was against a team that I love to hate!  Unfortunately, the Denver Nuggets are really good (they are battling for the number 1 seed in the Western Conference) and the Jazz have been struggling lately without Lauri Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson, John Collins, and Walker Kessler.  The shorthanded Jazz did play with a lot of heart all night and, whenever it looked like Denver would break the game wide open, the Jazz would find a way to stop them and, while the Nuggets had the lead for the entire game, Utah got within six multiple times and within three late in the third quarter (which got the Delta Center cheering as if it was a playoff game).  Horton-Tucker is one of the biggest reasons why the Jazz were able to stay in the game and ended the night with 24 points including the electrifying three-pointer to get the team within three.  Yurtseven also had a good night with 20 points and I thought he did a good job matching up with Jokic who is so good (at one point he had such an amazing three-pointer that even I had to admire it).  Semanic ended with 15 (including the first double-double of his career) and George (I really like him) and Sensabaugh each had 10 points but it wasn't enough and the Jazz ended up losing their 13 straight game 111-95.  I am usually a good luck charm for the Jazz but clearly not this season because I only saw them win once!  At least I have had a lot of fun watching the games with Angela!

Gone with the Wind

Last night I got to see Gone with the Wind on the big screen in honor of its 85th anniversary and it was an amazing experience to see this epic movie presented as it was meant to be seen!  On the eve of the Civil War, the spoiled and petulant Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) thinks only of attending genteel parties at neighboring plantations and of catching the eye of the soft-spoken Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard).  Her life is forever changed when war is declared and when Ashley marries Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland).  Through sheer determination and force of will she does whatever it takes to survive the horrors of the war and keep Tara, her family's plantation, during the turbulent days of Reconstruction all while continuing to pine for Ashley.  However, she meets her match in the rakish blockade runner Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) and she eventually marries him despite the fact that she doesn't love him.  It takes a tragedy for Scarlett to realize that her love for Ashley was an illusion, just like life in the South before the war, and that Rhett is the one she truly loves.  She begs him for a reconciliation but he tells her that it is too late which prompts her to return to Tara which is the source of her strength.  While this movie is very problematic, especially how it romanticizes the Antebellum South as a time of chivalry with knights and their ladies fair and the portrayal of slaves as docile and content to be owned by their benevolent masters, I really love the underlying story about perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds (especially by a woman), the iconic performances of both Leigh and Gable, and the stunning cinematography (the wide shot of Scarlett walking among the Confederate dead and wounded and the silhouettes against the burning of Atlanta are breathtaking).  It was so much fun to see this with a crowd because there were cheers during all of the familiar quotes and applause at the end.  There is one more chance to see this as part of Fathom's Big Screen Classics series (go here for information and tickets) and I highly recommend it.

Of Mice and Men at Parker Theatre

Last night I went to a stage adaptation of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men at the Parker Theatre and I loved seeing this American classic come to life in the very capable hands of this theatre (I have yet to see a performance here that I haven't enjoyed). George Milton (Lucas Charon) and Lennie Small (Brinton M. Wilkins) are migrant workers trying to save money for their own piece of land with a cow, pigs, chickens, and, most importantly, rabbits which George has promised Lennie he can tend. However, Lennie, who is very big and strong but mentally challenged, keeps getting into trouble because of his naive love of everything small and soft. After being run out of their last job, they find work on another ranch near the Salinas River in California and soon discover that many of the inhabitants, including and old-timer named Candy (Brook Robertson) who is forced to part with his dog, Curley's wife (Ashley Slater) who is unhappy in her marriage, and Crooks (Kiirt Banks) who is segregated from the other workers because he is Black, are suffering from a crushing loneliness. Even though George laments the fact that his life would be so much easier without Lennie, he knows that it is this friendship and their dream that keeps him from the same loneliness. Events eventually conspire against them when Lennie is once more tempted by something soft and George loses both his friend and his dream. It is an incredibly tragic story because it is a realistic portrayal of the plight faced by many during the Great Depression and I always find it to be very thought-provoking because the American Dream is still often unattainable for those who are marginalized. This production provides a very sensitive and moving portrayal of these dark themes. Wilkins gives a brilliant performance as Lennie because he is always believable as the character with many subtle bits of business that allude to his diminished capacity, such as looking off in the distance, never making eye contact, and stimming with his fingers. His interactions with Charon are also believable and incredibly touching (I had tears in my eyes during the final scene). I was also very impressed with Robertson, because his response to the death of his dog (which foreshadows future events) is another poignant moment which brought tears to my eyes, and with Slater, because her characterization as Curley's wife is much more sympathetic than I have seen before (she is usually portrayed more coquettishly). I also have to give a shoutout to Apollo, making his stage debut as Candy's dog, because he is very well-behaved and so adorable. I loved the use of Aaron Copland's music, because it is very beautiful and evocative, and I also loved the use of corrugated tin and wood in the sets for the bunkhouse and the barn, because it feels so authentic to the time and place. The entire production is outstanding and I highly recommend taking advantage of this rare opportunity to see one of the great novels of American literature performed on stage. It runs on Fridays and Saturdays through April 27 (go here for tickets).

The First Omen

The second movie in my double feature last night was The First Omen, a prequel to The Omen, and it has such an atmosphere of escalating dread that I was genuinely scared at times (which doesn't happen that often for me).  In 1971 Margaret (Nell Tiger Free), a young American novitiate with a troubled past, travels to Rome at the invitation of her mentor Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy) to work at an orphanage before taking her vows.  Margaret immediately bonds with Carlita (Nicole Sorace), an older orphan who has hallucinations that are similar to those she experienced as a child, and she is troubled by how the nuns, especially Sister Silvia (Sonia Braga), respond to her.  Her unease eventually turns to terror when Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson) warns her that Carlita may be part of a sinister plot to bring about the birth of the Antichrist.  I really enjoyed the story and not just because of how well it leads to the events of the earlier movie but also because of how it incorporates the social and political turmoil of the 1970s as well as the lack of bodily autonomy faced by women (it has themes similar to Immaculate).  I found it very unsettling because of the atmospheric lighting, graphic visuals (that are quite provocative), immersive sound design (I got goosebumps every time I heard whispered prayers), ominous score (which pays homage to the original movie), and body horror that had people in my audience gasping out loud (the birth scene is intense).  The 1970s period verisimilitude is amazing because this looks like it was produced at the same time as The Omen (which I watched again as soon as I got home).  Finally, Nell Tiger Free gives an incredibly compelling performance and there is one scene in particular that is worth the price of admission alone.  This is honestly so much better than I was expecting (it is definitely my favorite horror movie so far this year) and I recommend it to fans of the genre.